


The Art Room

by NettleL



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Artists, F/M, Sasuke Has Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-15 20:03:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11813226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NettleL/pseuds/NettleL
Summary: She'd come to this room religiously. Maybe he had, too.





	1. The Talented Stranger

The art room was her get away.

The room with the frilly colors, paint-stained floors, and splashes of acrylics on everything tangible. The air always smelled marginally inodorous – almost rotten even – but still the same somewhat muted smell of paint. The windows stayed opened though, so easily the room was more of a mixture of ozone and all things art.

Tenten quickly set her bags down, and then scouted out her art stand in a mini sea of art boards. The number of students who came in here wasn’t a fantastic one (save those who’d simply come to hang out), but she wasn’t surprised. Art wasn’t very... popular amongst this generation. Most other students, she imagined, preferred to do the more ‘general’ types of things - like play sports, listen to blaring music, talk, hang out. Tenten furrowed her eyebrows as she thought this. Yes, maybe it offended her a _little_ ; drawing, painting, everything of and about art was mostly underrated; little in relevance as compared to other things. Despite this, Tenten couldn't number the amount of times students in her class would so vigorously “claim” her wherever an assignment called for an artist.

But at the same time she actually prefered a small, non-cluttered room where thoughts could flow undisturbed, undiluted, and thrown onto a sheet of paper in the form of colorful splashes. It wasn't so bad – in fact, it was convenient.

It was better.

Tenten scooted along her board until it reached her bags, situated in the perfect spot where the breeze could easily zip away the fumes from the paint from her senses like an empty chance. But then her eye caught another existence, the soft air of an additional presence, the supple sounds of brush licking paper and, when she looked up– there, with delicate strokes, perfectly poised (and painted) fingers and a calm, but yet concentrative expression – was the last student she’d ever expected to be _here._

Sasuke Uchiha.

She was staring. Probably staring a little too long and a little too much before she realized how much of a creep she was being and quickly returned to minding her own business again. She let out a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding and sighed. Strike one.

Still...

Sasuke Uchiha – the one student every girl raved and swooned over. The student who other guys envied and loathed, whether it was because of his popularity, or the ego that was said to be as high as the stars.  
Both, maybe.

But he was also the student who, despite it all, was forever quiet, forever alone. And In his deeply charred, black eyes was the certainty and epitome of brilliance.

At least, that's what everybody seemed to say. Sasuke was allegedly smart, too. An A+ student, with spectacular grades, and a great grade point average. On top of that, he always did his homework, and turned in flawless test grades. If that wasn't enough, Sasuke was also good athletically. Tenten couldn't deny it - if all of that was true (and she was confident that it was, given that there was a whole fan club dedicated to all things Sasuke) he was impressive.

Regardless, it was the same Sasuke – the quiet, popular, smart, egotistical boy who was sitting across the room, the same room, dedicated and delicately painting - in sheer silence.

And speaking of painting...

His piece was so dignified, so wonderfully done. Sharply defined and with distinguished strokes that seemed to make the focal point of his painting - whatever it was (from where Tenten sat, it was hard to see exactly _what_ Sasuke’s focal point was without it being obvious that she was actively peeping) - stand out.

But it was also monotone and melancholy (colorless), just like he was monotone and melancholy. It was such a stark contrast to the multi-colored splotches of paint that splattered the walls and floors of the rest of the room. Such a stark contrast to herself and her own painting. And her piece...

… When she looked back, she was again staring into two big, ‘blobby’ black eyes and bulgy lips of her rather large goldfish painting. The scales had been defined by colorful hues of oranges, reds and yellows - so well done, that it encouraged people to reach out and touch it.  
The biggest, roundest goldfish ever. Tenten suppressed a giggle.

But then Sasuke silently stood up, shortly going away to put away his paint brushes and supplies before returning, grabbing his book bag and leaving. Tenten watched as he went as discreetly as she could manage, her lips pressed together, heart inexplicably racing, and - why was she so anxious?

And then they slipped before she could suppress them.

“You're really good.” And she inwardly groaned and Sasuke paused for barely a moment - one would have had to squint hard to see it - before he left.

When he opened the door, Neji Hyuuga was just outside.

__

“That is Uchiha Sasuke.” Tenten was silent for a moment, sneaking a glance over at said student as he descended down the hall. Then what sounded like a mixture of both a nasal exhale and a half-laugh escaped her. “You don’t sound like you like him all that much, Neji…”

He was still staring at the other boy (who had just turned the corner). Tenten twisted her lip.

Her statement was meant as a joke - mostly. But now… _now_ she wondered what really was up. What was it that happened between the two of them? Had Sasuke said something to vex him in some way or another or..? Or maybe Neji was, once again, judging people; judging him. Tenten knew that Sasuke wasn’t the most sociable, most _nicest_ of guys (or so many people claim). But he wasn’t unpleasant either, not to her - she couldn't see him as being that. Instead, Sasuke seemed more silent than anything, trapped in his own thoughts, in his own interests, own…

“...Nightmares.” And Tenten’s eyes widened because the word came out of her mouth and bounced off of her lips before she could catch it. Neji returned his attention to her.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Tenten answered quickly, “I was just… it’s not important.”

Silent for a brief moment - but not without studying her, Neji let out a soft ‘hm’. If anyone was uptight, it was definitely him. And Tenten told him, in the form of rolled eyes just how she felt about it.

It sure stopped his scrutinizing.

“To answer your question, no.” Neji continued, “It would be a lie if I said I didn’t harbor something negative towards him.”

“But what did he do?”

Her friend said nothing.

“ _Neji_.”

“You shouldn’t be around him.” With this, Neji stalked off. Tenten frowned.

Sasuke wasn’t mean. He was quiet.

 —

Tenten was _perfectly_ aware that her piece was a lot more ‘looney’ than compared to Sasuke’s. She didn't need anyone to tell her this, she knew.  
Sasuke could probably draw a cute, overblown fish like hers, too.

So it didn't help that her Goldfish was being ridiculed like it was some sort of contest - and it especially didn't help that she was being criticized by “judges” who knew nothing of the subject either. So what if it looked like Sasuke had a lot of stuff drawn in his? Hers wasn't bad... _she_ was good, too. Not the best, but not the worst either. Tenten sighed.

Still...

Sasuke was good - no, Sasuke was _amazing_. His piece had so much detail, amplified by the grayscale, but…

With a huff, Tenten blew her bangs out of her face.

She wasn't going to deal with this. At first it had only been the two of them - her and Sasuke. They'd gone on three days being in the same art room at the same time, silently painting to themselves. And even though Sasuke never spoke to her (although she couldn't really talk, for she hadn't spoken either), Tenten easily enjoyed his presence. She guessed that he didn't particularly mind hers either - considering he continued to show up.

Again, she _guessed_.

But this? She had had enough of this.

Packing her bags, Tenten decided that today she was going to leave a bit earlier than the usual. Just so it’d keep her from snapping off on these two girls who, she didn't doubt, were obviously from Sasuke’s fan club. She’d come back the next day and then things would, hopefully, go back to being the way it was again. Resolved, Tenten stood, wrapping her painting board in a sheet and turned to leave.

One of the girls seemed to take this opportunity to get louder.

“But look at how cool Sasuke-kun’s painting is! It's a lot more real-looking.” This was followed by a hearty agreement from the other girl.

—And then a shrill shriek from both that made Tenten’s heart jump.

Because something cold, and thick and _wet_ hit their shirts, and when Tenten spun around, even she was taken aback by the biting glare that Sasuke had thrown at the two girls. The brush in his hand was still angled towards them, a lucid indication that that was where the dark paint - now on their shirts - came from. For a moment, Tenten felt bad for them. They looked reasonably stung.

Sasuke only said one word.

“Clueless.”

Now they looked like they trying their hardest not to cry.

If Sasuke knew this, he did not show it, and he definitely wasn't sticking around to witness the two girls’ very imminent break down. He had scooted away from his piece unconcerned and had thrown his hands into his pockets and left.

 

Just like that.

_

_She thanked Sasuke the next day. Even though she wasn’t sure if Sasuke was so much as defending her than defending the concept of drawing itself. But she’d bit her lip and thanked him anyway, and he’d given her the slightest, most unnoticeable nod - a light gesture that was hardly there._

_But it was a start._


	2. Who Are You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here comes the stars.

_“Leaf hurricane!”_

Lee’s practical war cry reverberated and bounced off of the gym walls and left the audience pooling with what was undoubtedly excitement and suspense. With swift, skillful movement, his whirling kick sent his adversary flying - and not without a painful ‘yelp’ that sounded almost as equally loud (if not, a little less) as Lee’s own shout. He was left to cradle his front after a series of bowling over and tumbling.

If not for the wall behind him, Tenten imagined that the guy would have kept rolling until a group of people had to chase him down to end the poor guy’s somersaults.

Lee always did have the bad habit of naming his ‘moves’ and - Tenten mentally groaned - shouting them out loud. She was used to it though - her _and_ Neji.

But his opponent? Well…

The other guy had been weirded out at first... if not fed up. Having to go up against someone he didn’t know with funky hair, bushy brows and unblinking _circle_ eyes, Tenten wasn’t surprised. Later on in the match, the guy seemed to get a little haughty about it - the win he probably silently guaranteed to himself, convinced that Lee was nothing more than a nut-case and not the ‘handsome devil’ he was so popularly called (or rather that he called himself). What he hadn’t expected was for Lee to prove him wrong and leave him with a sore stomach that would _last_.

Tenten couldn’t help but smile.

Lee might’ve been a ding dong, but he was strong and sweet and _fast_. He was getting stronger by the day and Tenten was sure that even Neji, the _genius_ , had begun to show signs of strain during their spars. Lee was nothing short of amazing. Just like…

_‘Sasuke was good - no, Sasuke was amazing.’_

Just like Sasuke.

Her brow furrowed. She found that she had been thinking about him a lot recently - ever since she’d met him.

_Not met._ She reminded herself. _There. I was just in the same room, at the same time, and on the same day._

Regardless, he had plagued her mind like a tick. Something… _something_ about him drew her to him and she certainly didn't know what to think about that. She didn't like him, not like that. She didn't think she did - in fact, she found she didn't have any reason to just - _like_ him. But every mentioning of his name seemed to make her flinch. Girls would chatter and gawk, guys would spit, and Tenten directed her ears to listen because the fruit of their conversations _were_ Sasuke. She’d even flinched because the name ‘Sosuke’ sounded so much like Sasuke.

Not to mention that she was starting to see him.

She barely knew him and she was starting to see Sasuke around the school - places that weren’t the art room. Though this was hardly a phenomenon to her because- well, people not previously known seem to become visible after at least an encounter.

And she did more than encounter Sasuke. She’d _spoken_ to him.

After Lee’s match, lunch would ensue and Tenten always spent her lunch-time painting in the art room - where Sasuke was, where he _would_ be. Had he always been? Judging by the guy Lee had just knocked to the ground and the time that seemed to correlate with it, she would see Sasuke soon.

There was something oddly comforting and unnerving in that thought.

“Whats wrong?”

Tenten nearly jumped out of her skin and Neji, noticing, shot her a look.

She was doing it again, and he knew it.

Feigning innocence anyway, she threw him a child-like frown.

“What?”

The next look he gave her was something that practically screamed she knew exactly what he was talking about. Not that she didn’t, and not that she expected any different outcome. Neji was sharp. But regardless – _always regardless–_

“You’ve been distracted lately.”

“I have?”

“ _Tenten_.” His voice was sterner, eyes firmer - always seeing through everything. “Yes, you have. One minute you are focused on one thing, but the next, you’re dazed. Lee’s match–” He paused to gesture over to where Lee was now standing, bowed. The guy he had been faced against was on the ground, panting but not tumbling like the last guy. Lee won the second match. Tenten wasn't surprised.

Neji lifted his eyes back to hers, watching her very closely. His next words made it hard to differentiate between a statement and a question.

“–you weren’t aware that it was over.”

But he was right.

She didn’t answer him though, and he didn’t pry– _thankfully_. Thankfully because she didn’t know how to respond to him. She bit her lips, unable to explain, unable to find her words and– she wished he would stop dissecting her. Sasuke was haunting her thoughts again, and, for whatever reason, Neji didn’t like Sasuke. She couldn't tell him that.

...And since he apparently wasn’t going to tell _her_ why, she didn’t owe him any explanations, either.

But that was an excuse.

__

_Tenten got up to congratulate Lee on his two victories, and - throwing a look toward Neji’s direction, but not directly at him - left._

__

She was beginning to feel something again.

Something that made her tense, made her heart beat and head go akimbo. Something…

_...Anxious?_

She was feeling anxious again.

Just like when Sasuke was leaving, and her lips scrunched and it was so silent that she could hear her heart beat thudding in her ear, and–

–and she had told him that he was good. It was an accident, but she couldn’t deny that her heart was in those three words. Maybe some jealousy, too.

But now Tenten was feeling anxious again, and with it, an explicable need to rush - not run, _speed walk_ \- to the art room.

Where _Sasuke_ was.

But she stopped short - not only because she was beginning to be ridiculous, and not because her feet had lead her farther than she’d thought.

But because Sasuke was there, and he was standing right in front of her goldfish.

_Oh…_

Tenten’s heart immediately froze and she back-pedaled, dancing a step out of the entranceway. Sasuke was there again, just like she knew he would be, and silently somewhere in the back of her thoughts, that was what she hoped for.

But why was he..?

Wait.

Was he going to ruin her painting?

_Would he?_ She didn’t think so.. Maybe she didn’t know him well enough to think anything, but Sasuke struck her as someone humble - decent.

Noble.

There was something about him that seemed off though, almost… she didn’t know. But feeling she ought to give the quiet stranger his privacy - despite how it doesn't make much sense since he's standing over _her_ painting - she stepped out of sight.

What does he see when he looks at that?

Then Sasuke animated, leaving to, she guessed, gather his painting utensils. He didn’t look at her painting again.

Tenten leaned in cautiously, for whatever reason feeling ginger. Something in her might’ve expected for Sasuke to disappear, to be gone when she entered the room. Like a ghost. Something else in her might’ve felt blameworthy for possibly ruining the delicate moment with a presence ( _her_ presence) Sasuke was sure to’ve felt. Either way, Tenten found herself mentally saying _‘aha!’_ when she saw Sasuke over by the utensil rack gathering his things like she’d forethought.

“Hey, Sasuke.” She chirped, an attempt at pretending she wasn't always there seeing him (which could have had some truth - maybe he'd been there _longer_ ). Sasuke threw her a glance and, when she waved, a nod before resuming his paint tool gathering.

As Sasuke was leaving to sit down, Tenten marched over to do just what he had. She tousled through the brushes, filled a cup with water, grabbed her usual acrylics, and sat down.

...Then she jumped back up to crack the windows opened because it was hot (the afternoons were the hottest, the soulful melodies of cicadas the loudest) and silently hoped Sasuke wouldn't mind.

Silence swept in like freed smoke.

This was… okay. It was easy. She said ‘hi’ and waved and Sasuke acknowledged her - in his very own trademark way - but at least he did and she wasn't left standing off awkwardly and unanswered.

In fact, the past four days being in the same room with Sasuke was easy, _routine_.

Tenten dipped her brush in goopy orange paint and coated over a scale. She did this an awful lot. Her goldfish had been done forever ago and all she was doing was repeating what was already done and being unnecessary.

And so was Sasuke.

He was hesitating - about _what_ she didn't know. But she could tell that he was because although his brushes were in his hand, and everything else - from brushes and paint to paper towels and that cup of water - that he needed to paint, he was motionless. Not motionless - _tense_. The exertion from it left him a little shaky from seemingly trying to keep still.

He had been so focused, so unconcerned about everything else - his artwork and only his artwork held the spotlight, and with it, his heart. But this time, Tenten was certain that there was an aura of frustration radiating off of him. His breath was hitched like he was wanting, _needing_ to say something to her because she had been the one he was looking so... anxiously at.

_What’s bothering him so much?_

A quick, secret glance his way told her that Sasuke looked like someone who was guilty of a crime. Someone whose shame was more powerful than his will to keep his felony secret.

Even though it was strange, and yes, slightly uncomfortable, somewhere down deep inside of Tenten wanted his trust; she wanted his trust, but she didn’t know him well enough to give him the strength to lend it…

...And as if on cue (the resultant of this throttling truth that perhaps they both already knew), Sasuke deflated. The tension was gone, and he let out a soft sigh. He’d lost to shame.

But she’d give him the strength anyway.

And what better way to start than finally, _actually_ meeting the Sasuke Uchiha everyone knew, except her?

Tenten huffed, crossing her arms and throwing her goldfish a look. She could start with this? Not that the predicament had been made up specifically on the spur of this moment. This was a genuine problem.

“I don’t know what to do with this.”

Sasuke looked up, paint brushes of varying sizes in one hand and a cup of water in the other. Still unmoving.

“You could just start another.”

She should have been a little startled that those five words were the first words Sasuke had ever spoken to her - not because of what he said, but because he’d _said_ them.

To her.

This was getting along nicely.

Instead, Tenten smiled and Sasuke looked away.

“Maybe. I have no idea _what_ though.” She answered honestly, face scrunching. What else was there to do? She supposed she could just start drawing, and maybe that’d manifest into something new - which was the exact same recipe for her goldfish, but…

She looked at Sasuke again and - and honestly? She realized that it was getting easier to look at him. She wasn’t looking at his back this time, wasn’t sneaking glances like she had earlier, either.

“Any bright ideas?”

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her. Tenten laughed-- but it only lasted a moment before she bit her lip in thought, serious again.

“Something not…” She hesitated, and suddenly her mind flashed back to yesterday, when those two girls - Sasuke’s fan girls - trashed-talked her goldfish. They weren’t getting to her-- she didn’t think so, she _hoped_ not… were they?

No, she didn’t think so. They didn’t know what they were talking about, but Tenten had a feeling that they did now.

Sasuke had fixed that.

_‘Still though…’_

It still didn’t take away that Sasuke had been better than her in every way. And it also didn’t take away how stung she still felt even afterwards. Sasuke was on a pedestal so much more higher than hers, on a level that left dust in her throat and grit in her eyes days later. Those girls had been right about one thing - and Tenten _hated_ that they were - and that was that Sasuke was far more skilled than she probably ever would be.

But at the same time, though? It was okay. All this time she held her place like a champ. She looked to the stars even when everyone else looked down on her in turn; even though they still did it, she looked up.

For sure, she had nothing worthy of writing home about, but she still had something that maybe wasn’t the best, but at least it was there.

That thought was all it took to re-cheer her spirit.

“Something not...y’know, simple– _ordinary_. Maybe something that's more complicated? ... I don't know." she laughed lightly and shrugged her shoulders. "Then again, ordinary’s always been kinda my thing, so–”

“You’re not ordinary.”

Her heart dropped a beat for the third time that day.

Tenten’s face opened up. Sasuke stared on as if to drill his words into her. In that moment’s wake, a heavy silence reigned and something in the air changed - a spontaneous combustion, of sorts. The atmosphere had gone, and morphed, and twisted - it was a mixture of something that was both uncomfortable and analeptic. The air had gotten colder and the room saturated ever brimful, ever more vibrant. There had to be colors dancing in her view… or maybe they were stars. Tenten would have questioned the possibility of it, if not for her moved heart.

Sasuke held her gaze for a moment before directing his eyes somewhere just past her…

Something that was…

Her painting.

“It’s... not bad.”

And when those very eyes shifted and finally acknowledged _her_ , a surge of understanding had calmed and further mystified her at the same time.

Despite this, Tenten immediately understood two things from looking at him.

The first, that Sasuke had been making her feel things - different things that she wasn’t used to, things that took time to name, no words to explain because it was unexplainable. _He_ was unexplainable.

The second was from the wistfulness in his charred black eyes, something not unlike a yearning, not unlike a deep-seated wish; Maybe Sasuke was missing something. Maybe he’d lost it, or maybe it was never there and he was searching for it. When he looked at her painting… was there..?

Was what he’d lost, _there?_

Nevertheless, a tiny smile played at her lips and she dropped her gaze.

“Sasuke…” She breathed, much too soft for the tease she was prepared to pitch at him. “Sasuke, what kind of–”

“Oi Sasuke! Get 'outta there, It’s time to go!”

Then both she and Sasuke glanced up, their heads jerked towards the blonde boy who had just sloppily and _loudly_ thrown their door open. A girl with long, pink hair followed, her fingers clasped timidly behind her back. _They must be..._

Right. They hung around Sasuke a lot. She’d seen them in the hallways.

She turned to see Sasuke wordlessly (though she didn’t miss that look of irritation in his expression) rise from his seat. He threw his hands in his pocket and stalked after Naruto and Sakura. But then he paused, and Tenten's eyebrow quirked.

“You’re Tenten.”

A smile.

“I’m Tenten.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter up - which honestly - was the struggle to write and edit!  
> But I got 'er done, so it's off my mind.


	3. Paths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...

Usually he stood outside their classroom door to wait for Naruto and Sakura’s period to end. When it did, Naruto never failed to come out loud and obnoxious and find some sort of daffy reason to complain. Sakura on the other hand would get girly and shy the moment she looked his way. He'd walk them to the lunchroom - the least he could do, according to Naruto - before parting ways with them. All the while, Naruto would continually be loud, even louder when Kiba, Shikamaru, and Chouji came around (unless they were absent, they were always there - courtesy of their schedules). Sakura would admonish them with the fake persona she'd solely built for him, probably thinking that if she was against them, she was with him. Despite her efforts, she was still annoying; if not for anything else, then for pretending to be a different person just for his gratifications. Sasuke really wasn't in the mood for it today.

Something else was bothering him too much.  

This week it was,  _ ‘I'm okay, Sasuke.’ _

Last week it was,  _ ‘Think happily, Sasuke’ _ . The week before that, it was,  _ ‘It'll be alright, Sasuke’ _ .

His brother’s “reassurances” weren't kicking in, and he was sure Itachi knew it. He was working himself far too hard to still come home with that happy-hearted attitude, and then ‘airily’ smile as if to make the situation seem better than what it really, truly was.  Sasuke wasn't dumb. He could see through the facades Itachi was always too good at deploying. Now these facades were just about as holed as the ozone layer, and he was degenerating - he  _ and _ his tactics. 

Itachi was getting sick, and Sasuke was getting sick of his lies and diversions. Everything was out to get him, and he was walking right into their hands. 

_ But… _ Sasuke’s gaze softened and he released his breath. 

He hadn't forgotten. No way he would. Itachi had every reason to do what he was doing, and Sasuke wanted want they both did. It was undeniable. 

But he didn't even want him to  _ help _ . 

He wanted to get away from it,  _ all _ of it. From loud Naruto, from self-efficacious Sakura, from his lying, hurt brother. Everything. He had to escape. One day in his festered frustration, he’d found a room to express and lose it all. He had holed himself in the desolate space and began darkness. 

Dropped with age, he hadn't drawn in years; the last time he remembered passionately doing so was when he was young and boyishly doodling cars and characters he thought were cool in television shows. But being there, in the Art Room, he painted everything he felt and everything he was and would forever continue to be. His fears, his losses, his stifling anger - everything that he knew he was born into this world to be. Fate had decided it. 

But the next three days, he was getting shivers from a plain faced girl who radiated the sheer opposite. 

Tenten.

Since then, every brushstroke he laid to darkness felt wrong, every drop of paint misplaced. Each angle explored gave him nothing, and instead ruptured his soul. He had spent countless lunch periods in the Art Room staring pensively at the painting, tapping his clean brush against the wooden easel eagerly. Like doing so would somehow, some way fix the mistake.

She broke him. Everything - that is, with darkness - was right until she came and scared the shadows away. He should've felt the need to run from her. 

Instead, he felt drawn. 

He felt drawn and inexplicably so. For the first time ever, he had never been so anxious to see one person - much less a girl - in his life. He had a feeling he knew why.

…And maybe it wasn't as inexplicable as he thought.

The bell rang. 

In its incessant, ringling wake, classroom doors behind him, at his sides, and in front of him flew open and the halls were filling with chattering people. The silence he’d all this time relished in was broken by the simultaneous clamor of slammed doors, shouts, running footsteps and teachers howling at students not to run in the halls. Somewhere in the distance Naruto yelled - but through the racket of closing locker doors and chatty girls, Sasuke couldn't hear a word. Not that he cared to. There was only one thing he cared about, and that was getting to the Art Room and away from all the noise.

Away from sound. 

No more than twenty additional paces found him at the corner of the hallway, and briefly his eye spotted a student ducked behind a large garbage can. Uninterested, he would've just turned the corner and continued on his way had he not caught glimpse of her two buns. 

His brow quirked. 

Sasuke didn’t realize his feet had carried him there until he was standing right next to her. He eyed her skeptically. 

“...What are you doing?”  

Tenten didn’t turn to look at him, but by the way she gasped, and how her shoulders instantaneously scrunched, Sasuke had reason to believe she was up to no good. She looked like a trapped mouse caught in an act. Slowly she turned, and something in her seemed to deflate when she saw him. She brought her hand to her chest and breathed.

“Escaping.” she admitted sheepishly. “From Lee and Mr. Guy.” 

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow. The  _ gym _ teacher?

Tenten grinned at him - almost as though she’d read his thoughts - and then continued. 

“Yeah, see, around  _ this _ time they get crazy hyper. Somewhere down the line, they made it a routine to drag me into whatever physical activity -  _ ‘for the sake of keeping in youthful shape!’-”  _ This she had said with a clenched fist and nearly perfect accuracy. “-that they're doing.  _ That’s _ what I have to go through to get to the art room.”

Right. It all came back to him. Rock Lee was the junior who wore that green atrocity. Though the school was dress-coded and all students were uniformed accordingly, Sasuke guessed that the board must've given up on reprimanding Lee for his attire - the result of him wearing the jumpsuit regardless of their warnings and penalties.  That, or Guy stood up for him. 

If he didn't know any better, he'd think they were father and son. 

Sasuke pulled himself back to the moment and shrugged. “You can always go down 300.” 

“300…” she echoed. Then, after an understanding  _ ‘oh’ _ , her face scrunched. “ I dunno… I don't think the seniors actually  _ like _ lower-years walking down their hallway. ‘Badder than thou’ attitude, y’know?”

He shrugged a second time - only this time he also slipped his hands in his pocket, unconcerned. 

“They don't say anything to me.”

Tenten’s eyes lit up, and then something teasing flashed in them.

“Then you can be my noble warden! Protecting me from all the  _ evil seniors _ lurking about!” She twiddled her fingers, probably for the sake of dramatic flare. Goofball.

Sasuke scoffed, the corner of his lips quirking up ever so slightly. Tenten laughed.

“If you want.”

They were off shortly after that note.

-

The seniors  _ really  _ didn't want them in their hallway.

At first, she thought they would just blend in - the seniors weren't remarkably tall after all. Some of them were much shorter than her, the rest being average height or slightly above that. Also, their hallway was cluttered and that should've at least provided them dodge, but…

...Then again, their school shirts  _ were _ brightly marked by their year (being a junior, hers was marked by the color orange, and Sasuke’s, a sophomore, yellow). 

While some of them didn't seem to care, too caught up in their laughing conversations with their friends, others were… galled almost. Aside from the girly whispers about how cute the little sophomore walking alongside her was, Tenten could've sworn she heard someone murmur, ‘ So they think they can just walk down here like it's nothing, huh?’ and Sasuke didn't seem to notice. That, or he didn't care. 

Judging by how unbothered he looked, it was probably the latter.

Tenten shut the door behind them and released the breath she didn't realize she was holding. 

“ _ Sasuke _ .” She said with a  wry, quivering laugh as she walked over to gather her painting materials. “ Those people were glaring daggers at us. You mean you do that everyday?  _ Without _ being jumped?”

“They can glare all they want.” Sasuke responded, waving his hand. Then something smug flashed in his expression. “If you're  _ worried _ , I don't mind walking you down.”

“Will you hold my hand?” she teased, lifting a quizzical eyebrow, and he rolled his eyes.

Outside, the wind blew and she watched him as he leaned back, his hair falling over his shoulders and his eyes closing.

They lapsed into an easy silence. It was starting to feel more natural for her and Sasuke to come to this room. Sasuke… he seemed more comfortable, more now than ever (not that she knew him long), but he was talking to her - more words, less nods - and he definitely wasn’t as tense as he was days before. At first, that was exactly what he had been; tense. She considered multiple times just leaving and never showing up in the room again, more comforted about the decision when she thought about how Neji told her she shouldn't ‘be around him’ or something, but it wasn't out of malice or fear - or even discomfort. Or maybe it was. She probably  _ should’ve  _ felt uncomfortable to be around someone who was uncomfortable with her first.  _ Was  _ Sasuke uncomfortable though? Maybe it was just him forcing it down and being polite.

Maybe it wasn't. 

Maybe he didn't care and she was invisible to him until one day she, well, wasn’t. It didn’t matter though, because they’d been in the same room for a week now and Sasuke was getting better. He was winding down and she was glad. It was progress. 

“...How do you do that?”

Tenten looked up. Sasuke was now sitting up -  _ slouched -  _ but up, and no longer leaning against his chair. Through the raven black hair that in parts covered his face, his brow furrowed and his mouth opened slightly, as if he wanted to say more. The silence stretched on before he seemed to decide against it with a light shake of his head. Tenten felt a quick spark of panic shoot through her, unsure of what her response should be, much less if she should respond to him at all. 

Looking at him, the way his lips were pursed and how his shoulders stilled with both hesitation and anticipation, he was tense again, stiff. It was just like when… 

Realization struck her. 

_ His breath was hitched like he was wanting,  _ needing _ to say something to her because she had been the one he was looking so... anxiously at. _

Right. He was acting just like he had that day; the way he’d seemed to struggle with himself as if he felt he’d lost sight of something and no longer knew what that something even was. She had changed the subject mostly to alleviate the tension, but…

But nothing, she told herself, It  _ worked.  _ It just didn't erase whatever problem it was that Sasuke was having. 

The next day, he was silently standing over her goldfish, and then looked her straight in the eye, startlingly earnest, and told her that she wasn't ordinary afterwards. Everything seemed to lead back to her goldfish… but where was the start,  _ what _ was the start?

There had to be something before that.

He was stuck. Like he was thinking of ways to get out of a jam in a board game. He looked like someone who wanted to crack open, but years of hiding his emotions and isolation made the task, the  _ idea _ hard. 

And that was why… He needed someone to meet him halfway.

With that thought, she mentally slapped herself for pondering whether or not to even respond. Even if she really wasn’t sure what he was asking or why, she’d give him her best. 

It was the least she could do. 

“I sketched.” Sasuke stilled, “I sketched it out first with a pen. Then I grabbed some orange red and yellow paint - blues and purples too because I wanted it to look, y’know,  _ colorful _ . So I painted over the pen, and honestly? It looked like crap.” she laughed, “To someone else, it probably looked like a sad attempt at what I was going for. I guess it only got better when I got inspired.”

Sasuke’s head lifted, just a little. “... By what?”

Tenten smiled at him. “Something good I was looking forward to.”

-

The bell rang and she was now on her way to Neji’s class - just to stand outside and wait for his lecture to end. She had an early bird schedule - meaning she woke up early to go to school and left an hour earlier than those who had late starts. Neji and Lee both had late starts, so everyday she preoccupied herself in the art room and waited for the final bell to ring before their last class ended and they all walked home together. It wasn’t entirely against school rules - her staying behind another, what, fifty-five minutes? 

… Then again, she didn't even remember reading them, so maybe it was.

A squeal snapped her thoughts in two, and Tenten turned her head towards the sound.

It had come from her right, where the ceaseless buzzing of a classroom and the unlimited amount of energy the clearly female students contained increased. 

What she hadn’t expected was for that door to suddenly burst open, and then be drug into the room before she could even register what was going on. 

And she definitely hadn't expected for Sasuke to be there. 

In fact, Sasuke was everywhere. Glued on the walls were pictures of him, both photographic and drawn, and there were little hearts dangling from the ceiling. The board was also scribbled with colorful hearts and doodles of Sasuke, not to mention the entire room was cluttered with girls wearing  _ Sasuke shirts _ . At the exact moment Tenten realized that this place  _ had  _ to be his fan club, a girl with long blonde hair and a pointed bang - the same one who’d all but heaved her into the room - cheerily confirmed it.

“Welcome to the Sasuke fan-club!”

Tenten laughed nervously. “Uh... thanks?”

This had to be student harassment. She was honestly surprised the school hadn't… well, shut it down. Then again, maybe the board and principal got so exasperated from the petitions the girls probably went around asking people to sign, and the marches they’d conducted, that they stopped trying. 

“My name is Ino Yamanaka -  _ also  _ the club leader.”

“No you're not!”

“Can it,  _ forehead! _ ” she shouted. “I don’t think I need to tell you anything more because it’s all pretty self explanatory!” Tenten wanted to scream. “This whole room is dedicated to all things Sasuke!

“Er-”

“So? What’s your name?”

She didn't have the time for this. She had to meet up with Lee and Neji! 

“Uh… Tenten. Listen, I have to-”

“Tenten… Tenten…” Ino’s eyes sparked. “Your name’s not on the list, just as I feared! Here, take this and sign your name--!”

Ino practically forced the clipboard into her, and -  _ wow _ , were there a good amount of names written there. Not that she was surprised. Sasuke was popular, and she guessed it didn't help that he was good-looking, too. Mentally Tenten giggled to herself. Sasuke had it rough. 

Ino spun around her and went to the door and briefly Tenten wondered (fearfully of course) if the girl would shut it and close her in with the pandemonium. Instead, she went to advertise their group to passing-by students. 

Tenten put the clipboard on a random desk and made her escape. 

...Or  _ would've _ had Sasuke’s pink-haired friend not grabbed her arm. 

Tenten forced a smile. “What's up?”

Sakura fidgeted with her fingers in hesitation. Then she took a breath. 

“First,  _ areyouandSasukedating?” _

Tenten stared at her for a moment. Is she and Sasu... then her eyes widened with sudden realization. 

“Oh -  _ no! _ We're not, we aren't… doing that.”

Sakura looked relieved. “Well second, I'm sorry,” she bowed. “For Ino. That swine seems to think every girl in the school likes Sasuke, so… sorry about that.”

It really wasn't, but - “It's okay.”

After a moment’s pause, Sakura spoke up.“So ah… how'd you do it?” 

Tenten lifted an eyebrow at her. 

She looked down again. “I've never seen him, well…  _ look _ at someone like that - like he looked at you that day.” She must've been talking about that day she and Naruto found them in the Art room. Quietly and a little sadly, she added, “He  _ never _ looks at me. What were you guys talking about?”

“Just art stuff, painting.” Tenten shrugged awkwardly. Making up for it, she added, “He likes that type of stuff, I guess.”

Sakura didn't seem to care - she just nodded and continued. “Sasuke’s been so closed off, he wasn’t always like that - well, not as much or as bad as he is now. Now he never acknowledges us - not even Naruto. I guess it makes sense though, because his…” She shook her head. 

_ Because his..?  _

“Uhm… did something...?”

“It's… not for me to say.”

The girl scurried off without another word. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter, and not anything substantial going on, but... In any case, good news! - I've finally written up a proper outline for the story! I don't know when the fourth chapter will be up, but it shouldn't take as long as the previous three chapters did. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the read!


	4. Escapade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...

Spring break arrived and the hallways of the school were filled with sunny-hearted students ready to go home. Well, maybe not _filled._ Some students - the seniors mostly - had chosen to stay at their homes, not only because it was a half-day, but because spring break was tomorrow and usually on days like these, teachers had no work planned for their students to do. Save the real awful ones. She would've stayed home too if Neji didn't look so hard down on it. She could almost hear him over the phone call she would surely decline because she knew he’d only call to reprimand her.

_“You didn't come to school today, did you?”_

Ah, Neji. Always on her back. Though it was nice that he was looking out for her - and she'd probably feel uncomfortably empty followed by upset if one day he suddenly stopped - it was getting far too hot for his condemnations. Really, it was only the beginning of spring and it felt like June. Even though she hated everything of and about the cold, being too hot left her with a trash can filled with wasted, sleepless hours. All she had was the fan on her ceiling and it was laughably weak. So when Lee told her that he'd drop a spare AC off to her tomorrow (that is today), she was more than ecstatic.

She didn't expect for him to lug the darn thing in her arms _at school._

She should've though. Because Lee was Lee and while - yes, he was cute, considerate and sweet to a fault - it didn't take away from how he was nothing short of being a ding dong at times.

The whole day, and she was grateful that it was only a half-day, she had to lug the heavy thing around school. Neji had taken it off her hands during the periods they had together and she, her arms, _and_ her back was more than obliged. Mr. Guy on the other hand took it the complete wrong way because of course he did. Him, joyously sobbing on his knees upon seeing her supposed ‘dedication to keeping in shape’. Other students threw her quizzical looks because of course _they_ did. It wasn't like she was carrying around an air conditioner or anything.

For a moment, she felt bad for skipping out on the Art Room today. Sasuke was probably there, and maybe he expected for her to be there as well… then again, it wasn't like he needed her. In fact, was there even time for that? That period was seventh, with the early dismissal today it’d be sixth, and classes were cut off early. It'd make sense that the doors to the room were locked - it wasn't a class after all. Either way, she really needed to get this thing home because her back was hurting and so did her arms…

Too bad it was so humid that it was like she was breathing in bath water, and she didn't have an umbrella for the rain. Not that she could hold it anyway.

Tenten took a breath and counted to three before stepping out in the rain.

When she did, she couldn't feel the soft pitter-patter of water on her head _or_ on the AC box for that matter.

Only that she was flung nearly fifty feet from the car that’d just hit her, and there exploded screaming people rushing to her side with trepid, shaking hands. Someone, somewhere in the crowd, called the police - her voice ridden with panic.

...In a random flash of scenario, of course.

Actually, there was an umbrella hanging over her head. When she looked up, Tenten smiled.

“You've been carrying that around all day.”

“I know…” she sighed, putting on a despondent look. “I don't suppose you want to take this thing and walk it to my house, do you?”

Sasuke eyed her skeptically.

A joke. That was all it was. There was no way she'd let him carry her burden _only just two blocks and a half away, not even far_ , and she doubted that he would concede to even doing so. But before she could laugh and tell him as such - like, y’know, like she usually did - he took the heavy box from her.

Through the instant relief of her now freed arms and achy back, her face opened up in shock.

“Sasuke, what—?”

“How far?”

\--

Sasuke didn't look like the air conditioner weighed anything at all. In fact, he looked like holding it would be just as easy as carrying it with a single hand. Like a fancy waiter carrying a shiny, silvery dish tray.

Briefly it occurred to her that turkey would be nice.

“Way to make me look like a shrimp.” She shot at him.

She didn't fail to notice the way the corners of his mouth twitched up.

She also didn't fail to notice how his demeanor had suddenly changed when they shortly after arrived at her apartment complex. His step faltered for a second, and she turned to him with a quizzical brow to match his.

“What?” She asked as she unlocked the apartment building door.

“You said your house.”

Oh.

“House, apartment. Show, movie. Same difference.” she said good-naturedly. “You can call it a bad habit.” a pause. “ _Is_ it so bad a habit?”

“I can think of worse.”

“Like emotional shopping.” She grinned.

Sasuke nodded.

“And, uh… _picking scabs_.”

“Tenten.”

A laugh bubbled out of her and soon enough, they were in her room. It was small, unremarkable. Just like any other non-deluxe, regular apartment. The doorway lead straight into the living room - which was actually kind of spacey - and there was a large window on the other side. So as far as small was concerned, her place wasn't all that bad. In the same room was her teeny tiny kitchen and down the hall was one room on one side (the bathroom), two on the other (both bedrooms), and the master bedroom at the very end. That wasn't so small either.

Then again, it wasn't like there was a lot of furniture, or pictures, or any other miscellany lying about. She liked simplicity.

_She_ was simplicity.

At least, that was the role everybody else seemed to stuff her into. After a while, she didn't mind it.

“You can just put that down anywhere.” She chirped, waving her hand at the space indifferently. When Sasuke seemed to hesitate on _where_ anywhere, Tenten stifled a laugh and pointed to her kitchen counter. “There. You can put it there.”

“Thank you, and welcome Sasuke,” She then jokingly bowed, twirling her hand to her stomach. “to my humble abode.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Yeah.”

“I'd offer you coffee,” she added. Never let it be said that she wasn’t taught to be polite. “you know, like a fancy person or whoever else would do - but I hate the stuff, so I'm empty.”

He didn't seem to care, so she opened her fridge and pulled something else out.

“Okay so, maybe I don't have coffee, _but_ -” she paused, whipping around and flipping the flimsy plastic bag she pulled from the freezer. “I have toaster strudels. Want one? Or  _two?_ I usually eat a set. Strawberry or apple?”

Sasuke only considered it for a moment before accepting the invitation. “Apple.”

Tenten popped four in the toaster.

__

Since he had been standing so stiffly in the hall of her entry way―uncertain of what to do with himself next, she was sure―she told Sasuke that he could sit down so he’d stop being awkward. He visibly relaxed when he took a seat on the couch. Much better. She was so used to Neji and Lee coming over, doing whatever they wanted, sitting wherever they wanted. Even though she had a feeling that this was the only time Sasuke would ever be over her house, he was welcome to anything, just like they were. The timer for the toaster strudels _dinged_ a little after and they were both sitting on the couch eating the pastries. Sasuke was looking elsewhere with a look of disgust.

Tenten laughed again. “I'm _serious_ Sasuke. Those girls had pictures of you hung up everywhere.” She paused to catch her breath. “You didn't know about it?”

Grudgingly, he murmured, “I know.”

It only made her laugh harder.

“Okay, let's drop it - we can drop it.” She beamed and waved her hand. “Anyway, really, thank you for helping with that big ol’ thing.” She jerked a thumb in the direction of the air conditioner. “You're a lifesaver.”

“It's fine.” Sasuke waved her off. “Why did you have it?”

“That _dork_ Lee.” She sighed. “See, I told him that I didn't have any air conditioning and he generously let me borrow one of his. He told me he'd give it to me today, and… well, I thought he'd have the sense to give it to me at _home_.”

Sasuke nodded and Tenten guessed that he wasn’t going to say anything more, so they then eased into a comfortable silence. This was… not what she’d expected, she decided as the silence slowly stretched through the minutes. She was sure Sasuke would’ve turned her down earlier, but he had surprised her. She’d be a mess, for certain—well, more of a mess if it wasn't for him. Her arms probably would have given in, and the air conditioner probably would’ve dropped, and maybe it’d break, and there was _no way_ she’d ask Lee if he had another one. Since Lee was sweet, he’d probably throw her an apologetic smile and tell her ‘yes’ and she’d feel like a jerk.

These sudden flashes of scenario were really getting their way with her.

Shaking the uncomfortably cringey thought off with a shudder, Tenten let her shoulders slump and eased into a little smile. Sasuke had saved her the trouble in the end though.

Anyway, her plate was now empty, and she needed to put it in the sink. Something about postponing a simple task she _really_ didn't feel like doing, bothered her. When she looked up to see if Sasuke had finished his, she was surprised to find that he was looking straight at her.

Tenten shot him a wary, expectant look.

“So, you don't have…?”

_—_ _Oh_.

There it was again.

Sasuke was once again struggling. He was opening and closing his mouth, his brow furrowed as if trying to read a foreign language, and she caught his eye flicking to different things in her living room. Briefly she wondered if he was going to talk about her goldfish piece, when something sparked.

He'd looked at the pictures on her shelf way too many times.

“I'm an orphan.”

Sasuke’s head shot up.

“Was… that it?” She asked, her head ducked and her gaze slowly rising to look into his. When he looked down at his plate like it’d just stung him, she threw him a little smile. “It's okay.” She reassured. “I didn't know them. I grew up in an orphanage, but I'm not… well, hurt.” A pause. “about it.”

Sasuke didn't say anything - not convinced, probably. But after a minute or two, he drew in a breath, held it, and closed his eyes.

Then he released.

“I didn't know my father, he died before I was born. My mother…” he hesitated. Immediately her fingers twitched in a strong urge to stop him. He'd just asked a question, one that everyone, at some point, had asked her. Maybe it stung at first, and it _did_ , but over time the piquant feeling dissipated and she didn't let it get to her anymore. Her parents, whoever they are, probably had their reasons - good ones. But Sasuke... did he feel like he owed her for asking? She didn't want to let him think that… but she kept her mouth shut.

It felt wrong to suddenly stop him now.

“...Is in the hospital.” He finished quietly. He was still staring at his plate, but Tenten didn't miss how his grip on the white ceramic seemed to harden. “Car accident. They have her on life support.”

Life support. The word hit her like a bolt of lightning. For a long beat, there was silence. Sasuke still didn't meet her eyes, not that she blamed him, and not that he even could with how she was now staring at her fingers. She reached her hand to touch him, but stopped. She did it to Lee, and she did it to Neji and he didn’t mind, but Sasuke… He was a different person. Sasuke was the type of person who didn’t like being pitied. He certainly seemed like it. So instead of that, she asked,

“Who's..?”

“My brother. He's working several jobs trying to keep up the bill.” Sasuke struggled to meet her gaze, but he managed it. Just a little. The eye contact only lasted for a split second before he dropped it.

She watched his frustrated expression as he tried to figure out his wording.

“At the school, that's why… I asked.”

_...How do you do that?_

And then it sparked.

“Forget i―”

“You lost it.” She swallowed. “Color.”

There was a flash of emotion that cut across his face, a hopeful (was that what that was?) lift of his brows that made his eyes stand out, a biting trace of - sorrow? Guilt?

He didn't say anything. He didn't have to, though; silence spoke louder than words, and his sure said a lot.

He let out a cautious hum of confirmation instead of actually responding, and she quietly sighed, letting her stare drift to the carpet below them.

That... explained things. That explained why he told her she wasn't ordinary that one day, and why he had seemed so fixated on her goldfish, and probably why he'd called those girls clueless, and definitely why his own piece was so dark and sad and like black food coloring in water. The car accident, and maybe even not knowing his father, and his brother probably working real hard to sustain their mother's hospital bills… her heart broke for Sasuke. Money truly was the root of all evil. But now things made more sense.

Silence. But she wouldn't allow it to stretch this time.

“Do you... always paint in the art room?”

“Hm.” He nodded, and she felt her face break into a tentative smile.

“Then how about we find it again during spring break? But only if you want to,” she back-peddled, “It's--” _No big deal_ , she almost said. Maybe it wasn't a big deal for her, helping him that is, but it was for Sasuke. He'd seen a lot. Too much.

And she didn't want to step on his shoes.

He seemed to consider it for a moment, and she opened her eyes to watch his face as he took it all in.

__

At first, he had a hard placing his thumb on the appropriate term for her but now, today _,_ he was certain―he didn't know why it’d sparked when she ran into her apartment to come out in a bright yellow dress (though that alone did somewhat surprise him)―but she was nothing short of being it; in every way, shape and form, Tenten was _bizarre_. She was bizarre and normally Sasuke would've avoided her for it. He was someone who was quiet, everyone knew that. He didn't make friends, and he didn't want to make friends. Naruto and Sakura were enough - not that he wasn't forced into the camaraderie they now had, courtesy of his very thoughtful teacher, Mr. Hatake.

(Something about ‘balancing’ each other out that Sasuke denoted as ridiculous and just scoffed at.)

He didn't like to talk like Naruto and Sakura and virtually everyone else in the world did, he preferred listening. But even then, he tended to tune everybody out because he hated when people talked to him, and hated it even more when they expected for him to say something back. Only a few people were able to effectively get a response out of him - including Kakashi, who he nearly confided in, and Naruto who simply wouldn't shut up. Tenten was one of them. She drug him out like and unlike how Kakashi had done. She was bizarre in her very own way, Tenten-esque and not like Sakura (who he felt was more _de trop_ than anything else) but there was more to her than just that.

Of course there was.

Tenten was _convivial_ , too.

...

And a little annoying.

For example, today, when he tried to take darkness with him at the start of their ‘color to heal’ escapade. He didn't know what Tenten was thinking, what her plans for the both of them were, but whatever they were, she did not indulge him. Furthermore, he didn't see anything wrong in taking his painting with him since they were supposed to paint, _that_ much was obvious… until she told him to take it back with an all too cheery, too cheeky, “New slate!”

He shot her a look, and she, evidently in jest,  tossed it right back at him. Needless to say, they'd taken off with brand new canvases in hand.

__

It was raining (he didn't check the weather and neither did she, apparently) and they ended up canceling their painting plans for the day. Instead, they’d settled for taiyaki, and he'd go to her apartment and stay for a little while and then leave for his own home. On the way though, Tenten slipped and nearly lost her footing and he’d fought the laugh very hard.

Something he never had to do, because he didn't laugh. So it was uncharacteristic.

The very next day though, he'd come down with a cold and Tenten laughed at him for it. She called him, and as hard as he tried to cover up the inconvenient congested sound in his voice, she worryingly asked if he was sick, before she all too excitedly burst out with cheers. He wanted to hang up on her. What goes around comes back around, she’d said in-between giggles. Sasuke rolled his eyes and wiped the snot from his nose.

Although he hated to admit it, she was right.

Point taken.  

____

It was as plain as day to see that she loved messing with him.

"I bet I can make you laugh."  
  
Sasuke’s eyes opened and he rolled his head back to stare at her. He blinked, and his brow furrowed. 

“No.” He said in his usual, uninterested tone.

“Just _no?”_ She responded incredulously. “really Sasuke?”

They also went to a photo booth. Tenten, with how she'd allegedly only seen the machines on movies or on television shows, was more than eager to try it out. Of course she insisted he'd join her and grudgingly after she said that it’d really fit in with their journey, he ended up doing just that. And he hated it. Big surprise there.

The pictures consisted mostly of Tenten making silly expressions and posing equally as such. In one, she tried to mock him and his supposedly “grumpy face”, and in another, she had an arm wound over his shoulders, her free hand making the peace sign - in that particular one, he looked startled. Where he would've been agitated, he'd ended up smiling, just a little, when Tenten saw the pictures and laughed one of those hard, silent laughs.

Regardless and both needless to say, she'll never convince him to go into another photo booth.

__

The entirety of spring break was spent with her.   
  
Modest and genuine, she'd dial his number and ask if he was free―despite how he had already agreed to being with her during break―and he'd be waiting outside for her. Tenten never always had a plan, so they'd end up winging it and doing whatever popped up in their walks. The photo booth for example, or getting ice cream then _painting it_ , or simply staying at her apartment and relaxing when the day was not as jovial, comfortably warm and bright.

Some days were spent in peaceful silences.

Like days when the world was painted vivid by the sun's rays, a new painting with still wet oils, in a field of Black-eyed Susans.

He didn't know where to start in drawing the yellow flowers, or even how. Drawing with more monotone colors―greys, blacks and white―were considerably much easier than drawing with colors. You didn't have to worry about choosing a color scheme simply because there were no real colors to choose from.

He frowned and nearly threw his arms in frustration when a glob of undesired purple paint dripped onto his blank canvas. Tenten leaned over, threw him a sympathetic smile, and the next thing she said made him shiver.

“Sometimes that's all it takes.”

She saw the world as it probably was, a beautiful array of colours and shapes, ideas and formulas, voids and space, love and fear. He was convinced that all he saw was the opposite. Albeit it _did_ all have to balance out―like the hot and cold, up and down, and shadow and light. He was the shadows like he was born to into this world to be. Again, fate had decided it.

Tenten begged to differ. Maybe he would've scoffed at her and told her that she didn't have a clue what she was talking about, if he didn't remember that it hadn't all been this way. There was a withering little box in his house full of the drawings he did back when he was much younger. There were drawings of cars, and characters and all sorts of things in it, and they were all colorful. He hated that box, and hated that it was there, because life wasn’t fair anymore. He also hated _remembering_ that it was there, so for a while he made it invisible to himself.

Tenten made him remember it though. She made him remember that it existed, and he should've hated _her_ for it, too.

He would have, had, aside from remembering it, she not made him _miss_ the way life was before the day fate almost killed his mother. That wasn't all that was stopping him from loathing her though, because beside the fact that she never once did anything to hurt him and wanted to help him, what in him would've just thrown her and the sentiment away, couldn't - it didn't want to. _He_ didn't want to.

Color was returning to him. Just a little bit.

Because she was with him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After so long, here's the newest update! This chapter was a little... wonky, for me - gotta say. At this point, I think it's obvious that I have no idea what I'm doinggg.


	5. Disintegration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't be afraid to grill me after reading this chapter, haha.

_“Mm–!” Tenten stopped to swallow her mouthful of food, holding up a finger for Sasuke to wait. She took out her phone. “Hey Sasuke, what's your number?”_

_He lifted a quizzical eyebrow at her._

_“What?” She blinked, completely innocent. But then her eyes widened a fraction. “Oh– you think I'm trying to hit on you?”_

_“No–”_

_“Well, I can't do that.” She stated, amusement playing behind her voice. “First of all, yikes,_ Neji _. He'll throw a fit. Second, I'm sure every girl in and out of your fanclub would jump me on the spot, so– well, that or they'll paparazzi me to tears. Hopefully the latt-”_

_Sasuke huffed. “Here.”_

_She really did enjoy messing with people like Sasuke._

_(Eh, but technically he brought this upon himself.)_

____

She didn't come to the school immediately after Spring break ended. She wasn't sick or anything, but that was exactly what she had told Lee and Neji as an excuse. Lee fiercely wished her a ‘get better’, suggested some odd remedies to relieve her of her awful, awful sickness, and told her he'd be over after school to―and then she cut him off because she was _not_ looking forward to being spoon-fed soup.

“No, that's okay, Lee! I–” A fake cough. “–don't want to get you sick, too.”

“A-ah… well, I hope you make a speedy recovery!”

Neji? He didn't believe it because of course he didn't, and nevermind that the true reason she wasn't coming to school was because she didn't feel like it. He probably knew that. But he didn't give voice to his suspicions, and Tenten knew that if she was talking to him in person, Neji would’ve fixed her with a skeptic, unconvinced glare.

Sometimes these breaks just weren't long enough. Even though they were two vastly different things, a two-week spring break, and having a school day off in the middle of the week just to return the next, felt the same. She'd deal with angry Neji the day after tomorrow, she concluded with a smile and threw her blanket over her.

She texted Sasuke to let him know, too.

__

(There was a bit of a fumble the following morning as she groggily reached for her phone, and when she unlocked it to find the screen flashing with three bright digits (6:02) she buried her face into her pillow and groaned.)

__

Something was...weird today. Odd.

There was something almost eerie in the hallways, a hushed murmuring in the air that made Tenten feel like some kind of transfer student―new, and late to the going-ons. She turned away from her spot and started toward her locker at a pensive walk. But her steps slowed as she neared it, and she fumbled distractedly with the lock as she listened to the consistent gossip.

Something about… a fight? Someone getting beat up?

And 400 hallway. That was the Senior hallway. But what about i―?

Something in Tenten slowed to a stop.

...and _Sasuke?_

Well, now she had to know. Gingerly, she stepped over to a group of girls chitchatting by the lockers. She opened her mouth to question them before a neighboring group caught her attention.

“What was he supposed to do? Sit back and let the guy sock ‘em?”

“I'd do the same thing if I was him.” Some guy with a grey jacket, lined by black fur shrugged.

“I wouldn't’ve gone down 400 in the first place. Avoided it altogether.”

“Who's side are you on, Shikamaru? Friend, or foe!”

“He ain't my friend. He's _your_ friend.”

She didn't realize that the girls in front of her had thrown her weird looks - probably wondering why she was just standing there - before she turned away and walked to the group of familiar students. She held her breath.

“Uhm, did… Sasuke get into a fight?”

At once, all teens turned to her. Then Sakura turned her gaze to the floor, and Naruto shrugged.

“Yeah,” Naruto answered, “Sasuke whacked the guy in the face!”

“ _Naruto!_ For one, you don't have to be so loud. Two, you're making him seem like the bad guy!”

“What? I'm not! I'm just-”

“Making Sasuke-kun seem like a bad guy!”

“Maybe he isn't in this situation, but in everything else he is…” Naruto grumbled under his breath.

"But…” Tenten began slowly; her mind felt frozen to numbness, “I just saw him the other day…" Well, texted him. But nevermind how Sasuke was with her the majority of Spring break. Shaking her head, she swung her gaze back to meet Sakura's, then Naruto, then everybody else's’. "What happened to him? Where is he?"

“He got suspended.”

Tenten's expression went slack with surprise.

“But, he didn't start it!” Sakura butted in. “The other guy did - me and Naruto were there when it happened. He got up in Sasuke’s face, so he…”

Shikamaru threw his hands into his pockets. “You know how the seniors are about lower- classmen walking in their hallway. Apparently the guy got cocky.”

“Yeah, ‘an see where it got ‘em. Suspended with a broken nose.” Kiba shrugged, then after a moment jerked a thumb in another direction. “Anyway guys, gotta bounce. The bell’s about to ring.”

It did in the next second.

While everybody else scurried and scrambled off into different directions, Tenten whipped her phone out and pulled up Sasuke’s name.

She sent him a quick message before starting to walk to her own class. And a minute or so later, she got a buzz in her pocket. She hastily whipped her phone out, and almost laughed if it weren't for the hand she slapped over her mouth.

 

 

**Sasuke**

 

Sasuke, you got into a fight?? |

 Today 10:15 PM

 

| He was all talk.

How many days did they give you? |

| A week.

 

_Yikes_ … Tenten inwardly told herself, her brow quirked.

But that was okay. Maybe Sasuke wasn't at the school, and maybe he wouldn’t be for a while, but at least they had each other's phone numbers.

__

Oh.

Right.

It sparked to her at the last second. She had yet to deal with angry Neji. Normally she would've thrown him a goofy grin and said something silly until he rolled his eyes and decided _probably_ that she was too cute (because that's what she always went for in situations like these) for him to stay angry with her. She was good at that. Sometimes.

But today was different, and she didn't really feel like testing her luck.

“Hey,” She sat down and straddled her seat, folding her arms atop Neji’s desk. “Did you know about that fight?”

Neji looked at her briefly, but didn't say anything.

“The one day I'm not here and crazy stuff happens…” She continued anyway, twisting her lip.

“If you had come to school yesterday, you wouldn't have missed a thing. A shame you were too sick to.”

Tenten’s lips twitched into a smile.

“What's more,” he added silently, focus seeming to juggle both the conversation they were having and whatever it was that he was writing. “we're juniors, there's no reason for us to involve ourselves in underclassmen affairs.”

He had a point.

“Maybe. But Sasuke got suspended.”

Neji shot her an unconcerned look. It was obvious he didn't care. Not that she expected for him to. “Are you surprised?”

Tenten sighed. “C’mon Neji. What's that supposed to mean?” When he didn't respond, she sighed a second time and continued. This time, she took his pencil and began to doodle little critters on his sheet. “I'm sure if someone got in your face - or even mine or Lee’s, you'd butt in. I know you would.”

“You and I both know that was a fight that could've easily been avoided.” He said, and he looked a little.. Tenten twisted her lip. _Agitated_. “He, and his friends had no business going down 400 hallway.”

“But he always does, Neji…”

“For what? There are other routes.”

Well, he had her there. She had no idea why Sasuke chose to walk down 400. He never told her. That one day, he’d just invited her and she, although hesitant, accepted the invitation, and then that was all there was to that– no explanations, nothing. She seriously doubted that it was because Sasuke was cocky and thought of himself as untouchable (though he certainly proved the latter in the skirmish with that senior). But Neji was making it seem like Sasuke deserved to be suspended, which was hardly fair… yeah, going through senior hallway wasn't advised, but it wasn't taboo either. In fact, all years were expected to go down their own respective hallways, but those pseudo-rules were broken by students all the time. If anything, Sasuke was just a straightforward, ‘know-what-I-want, get-what-I-want’ kind of guy… It wasn't all that bad. Maybe in certain circumstances it could be, but...

And maybe the jerk who fought Sasuke was fed up over the fact that the girls - including even the senior ones - were more head over heels about a sophomore than himself. Nevermind how he did start the fight.

“Why does it matter to you?”

She lifted her face back to Neji's, furrowing her brows. “What?” _Why wouldn't it?_

“I'll rephrase. Why does _he_ matter to you?”

That was simple. They were friends. Or… were they friends? She thought so… They never really called each other friends, but they didn't have to. Things like friendships were easy just to point out.

Either way, she considered him a friend. She didn't know for sure if he thought of her the same, but they did spend almost the entirety of spring break together, plus in the art room weeks behind it, so she had a feeling he did too.

“He doesn't seem like the type to have–” a curt pause. “not even that, but need friends. He's the type who prefers his own company. That you bother is beyond me.”

“And you didn't prefer your own company at first, too, Neji? You pretended that me and Lee weren't even here in the beginning, remember? And now the three of us are best friends.”

Neji opened his mouth to say something, probably to protest, but stopped when she eyed him expectantly, her brow raised. Maybe it sounded childish to say, but it was true. She couldn't imagine a life without Neji and Lee. But Neji had also been distant and friendless in his own way once. He aced his classes, unlike many other students, and he didn't have any appreciation for those who weren't at the top with him. With Sasuke, it was different - how different? she didn't know, she didn't know everything in his story to know and explain - but he and Sasuke were more alike than Neji wanted to admit.

“Sasuke has Sakura and Naruto, and more friends than he probably cares to admit - pride issues I guess - but I doubt he'd even be texting me back if all he cared about was himself.”

Although he wasn't looking at her, she saw that Neji's eyes were still narrowed slightly, a subtle expression that she recognized as dissatisfaction.

The teacher walked in shortly after that note.

__

“So after you come back, think you'll continue to go down 400 hallway?”

That was probably a dumb question.

“I don't think I'd be able to.” Sasuke said. He was probably rolling his eyes over the phone. “They'll be following me around, making sure I don't get into any more trouble.”

“Oh…” Tenten frowned. “Yeah… yeah, I can see them doing that.” She sighed. “Well. Good thing about suspensions is that you get a break from school. Everybody needs one.”

She heard his breath hitch sharply, as though he was going to say something before being cut off. Something in his voice stilled when he spoke again.

“Yeah.”

__

As the week went by, Sasuke seemed to disappear. He had become a silhouette, as if he'd walked from a photograph and left behind blackness. His responses became sparser and sparser, until they altogether stopped like a dying breath. She’d even tried calling him again - straight to voicemail, and her text messages - always sent, never delivered. Was he ignoring her? She didn't think so. She didn't know, but she didn't think so…

Maybe he was.

There was an ache that came and went, always returning in quiet moments every time she thought about it. When she looked down at her phone and didn't see Sasuke’s name in her notifications, her heart seemed to drop every time. She impatiently counted the minutes in between before the process repeated. And while she would'nt’ve cared as much before, her seats became hot coal that she wanted, _needed_ to get out of. If her limbs were moving the worry was gone, or at least she could ignore it a while.

She also found herself eyeing the clock more often than she normally wouldn't. Did something bad happen? She hoped not… she really hoped not. She hoped that maybe Sasuke had dropped his phone in a toilet, or broke it on concrete and that was that, and not something worse.

She was beginning to feel anxious again.

...

And something else was bothering her.

Tenten turned away from her where she was standing, and started toward her next class at a meditative walk.

Even though Neji didn't give voice to it, she had a strong feeling he thought she liked Sasuke. Sakura had also felt the same way apparently, and downright asked her earlier...

Well. There were times when she could have a conversation with Sasuke before either of them drew breath to actually speak, and a calm equanimity seemed to flow through her whenever he confided in her on his own. She didn't think of him as a brother, like she did with Lee. And he wasn't just a friend to her, either - no, not more than that - but it was special, she thought, what they had. Did it mean she liked him if one glimpse of his rare smirks made it a good day? And since meeting him in the art room, it had always felt natural for her to back him up. He had Naruto and Sakura though so, no, maybe he didn't need for her to, but...

Maybe she did like him. Or at least on the cusp of it.  

…

Ah, who was she kidding?

Every grudging half-smirk he made, and every cool thing he did made her squeal on the inside.

__

She didn't think she'd ever find herself back here again.

It was an accident, honestly, she didn’t mean to. She just saw the opportunity, and... took it. The first time she was there, it was a nightmare and she really did fear that they would lock her inside their headquarters and torture her until she at last decided to join their group. Nevertheless - and _though she survived_ \- she vowed to never go back to that place, and to stay on the opposite side of the hallway should she ever have to walk past.

Now she found herself standing right outside their door. It was one of the last places she wanted to be, but she had to know what was up, and his fangirls ought to know something, however little, that she didn't.

...Maybe?

She was sure under normal circumstances they'd talk her ears off with _Sasuke trivia_ , but then again, Sasuke was their idol, their knight in shining armor. With him gone, they probably lost their batteries and were sitting around with grey clouds above their heads.

(Briefly it occurred to her that this visit might not be as bad as her, albeit involuntary, first.)

Then again,  _again_ , maybe she wouldn't even be able to get any information out of them. Would they even talk to her?

She _did_ feel a little bad for them, though… They probably felt awful about the whole him being suspended ordeal. That said, it shocked her a little to see that they were up and bustling when she opened the door.

Immediately, Tenten jumped back as a girl flew past her.

_“You!_ Bun girl!” And when she looked up, she was facing Ino.

“Uh… What are you guys doing?”

“Petitioning.” She stated briskly. Then she took the clipboard in her hands and shoved it into her (again) before scurrying off. “Sign _this_. Everybody keep working hard! We're ‘gonna stuff the deans with this petition and they'll have no choice but to bring Sasuke back!”

Ah. Now she understood.

“So...you guys are trying to get the deans to cut Sasuke’s days?”

“Yes!” A song sang in unison. Tenten cringed. 

This wasn't outrageous at all.

“Sasuke-kun shouldn't’ve got suspended! Not when that freak-a-zoid started it.” One incensed voice shouted, and a chorus of agreements rose up. Tenten found herself nodding. At least on that she could agree. It was good that the guy was suspended for just as long as Sasuke was. “What a jerk!” Another girl spat.

It didn't take long for her to skim the sea of frenzying, scurrying girls and find Sakura standing over near the room's chalkboard. Tenten made her way over.

“Hey Sakura, uhm… well first, hi,  _second -_ have you talked to Sasuke recently? See, I texted him about a billion times yesterday but he's not answering, and that's a little…” she trailed, “Weird.”

“No…” She shook her head, her brow creased with what looked like she was trying hard to think. “He hasn't answered my texts either. He's not talking to me,  _or_ Naruto.”

Tenten nodded, understanding, and something in her deflated. “Yeah..?”

“Yeah, but that's alright. Sasuke’s... like that. We're used to it. Everybody is.” She didn't look as confident in her words as she was trying to put on.

Then she was quiet for a little too long.

“Yeah, maybe you're right.” Tenten said finally, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Before turning to leave, she called back, “Good luck with the petition.”

__

She tried to forget about Sasuke. She had other things to worry about - Homework, grades, GPA. She really couldn't afford to be distracted in class, waiting for a message she nine of ten would never receive. After Wednesday, she didn't text him much, she was modest with how much she texted; Even if other times she did - and that was more for fun - she didn't want to blow up his phone. Eventually she just stopped trying, figuring that he might just be needing his space.

She could respect that.

Her reverie was cut short when someone walked up to her, their shadow looming.

“You’ve been staring at that same page this whole time,” Neji said, standing over her at her desk.

She felt her face grow hot as she stared down at the page, realizing for the first time that what he’d said was true. She quickly turned the page. She heard him scoff, but didn’t acknowledge it.

A bit more force weighed down his voice, and his eyebrows lowered.

“You want to tell me what’s wrong?”

She waved her hand, fidgeted with the page with her other one. “Nothing. Just… _thinking_. Daydreaming. You know how I get.”

“Did Uchiha say something?”

To her surprise, Tenten laughed.

“Sasuke hasn't said anything...”

Neji got silent. There was a scowl on his face that definitely wasn’t there before, and she couldn't tell if it was just because he disagreed with what she was saying or–

“Then stop worrying about him.”

Surprise flashed across her face at the bite in his voice. Then, for the first time since she could remember, at least when just the two of them were together, she felt a spark of irritation heat her blood.

But before she could snap back, affronted, Neji seemed to decide then that the conversation was over, turning toward the center of the room where his desk was.

Tenten drug her palms across her face and held them there.

__

As the week day gave way to the weekend, Tenten felt her anticipation rise. She tried to swallow it down, forcing her thoughts elsewhere - like into homework, and grades, _academic_ stuff - but her mind always flickered back to next Monday. When Sasuke would be back. Neji was frustrated with her… at least, something in her said so, and it both exasperated and irritated her to think of him.

He was so _irrational_ and frustrating himself.

Well, nevermind the irrational bit in just about every other situation, but about Sasuke? She didn't get that. Unless he knew something about Sasuke that she didn't (and if he did, he obviously had no intentions of spilling the beans), he didn't have any reason to seemingly loath him.

Even if he did, it wouldn't change a thing. Sasuke was her friend. Just as much as him and Lee were.

Tenten huffed and blew her bangs out of her eyes.

Well. Speaking of Lee, he always managed to cheer her up. So...

Well, now they were having  _this_ conversation.

He gasped a little over the phone. “So, does that mean your friendship is severed?”

“I don't know if it's that,” Tenten said, her lip twisting. It was definitely not _that_. “It's just… weird now, y’know? But that's okay. I don't think this changes anything - not permanently anyway.”

“Ah, that's great to hear, Tenten!” He shouted heartily. Tenten took her ear away from the phone. Even so, she very clearly heard him go, “Deep, intimate bonds should never be broken!”

“Uh, I don't know about _intimate_ , Lee.”

“Really? Most everyone else in school seems to think that of you two.”

_That_ , she knew.

“Yeah I know. Sasuke, too, I think.”

Wait.

“Argh, _Lee_ \- I'm not supposed to be thinking about that!”

“Oh. Why?”

Probably because if she didn't, time would fly by faster?

Tenten sighed. “It doesn’t matter.”

__

She felt her feet begin to drag as she walked down the hallway; came into sight of his room.  _Their_ room.  
  
It's been... days.

Only later in the first day of his absence did it occur to her that she would be in the art room alone for a while. Him not being there felt… strange. Empty almost. So she never went, and instead headed straight to Neji's classroom, and that was how it’d been ever since. Even past his suspension days, Sasuke still hadn't shown up.

When her hand brushed the knob of the door, something icy erupted in her and she pursed her lips. She had been doing this for weeks now, so, why was it suddenly so hard to do it today? She swallowed the lump in her throat and turned the knob as slowly as she could.

...Just in time to witness her goldfish get destroyed by a devastating, black splotch of paint.

Tenten’s face blanched.

Silence hung in the air like the suspended moment before a falling glass shattered on the floor. A silence that clung like a poisonous cloud that at any moment could choke the life from everything.

The art room was a mess. Coupled with the grey, sun-less sky, was splattered paint on the ground, the walls, the windows, the chairs - everything. Everywhere. Colorful paint yes, but it had no cohesiveness, no direction. A baby meets paint for the first time.

And there, standing directly in the middle with his back facing her, was Sasuke.

It barely occurred to Tenten that, behind her, her hand was cupped around the doorknob, as if she was prepared to slide the door open and run as far as her feet could take her. There was a darkness in Sasuke that was never there before, not even when she first saw him in this room. Almost throttling. In an instant, Neji’s words flicked to her mind - his irrational warning for her to not be around Sasuke clear in her thoughts. But she pushed them back despite the sudden rigid feeling, mixed with something not unlike fear and apprehension in her.

Because despite it all, he...

“Sasuke…?”

Sasuke closed his eyes, hoping that when he would open them again, she would be gone – the tension filling the room making his stomach churn. He already felt small enough, especially recalling the events from earlier. He didn’t need _her_ here, staring at him, hesitant, speechless – _guilty_. He didn't need to turn around, look in her eyes or evaluate her body language to tell she was feeling guilt. It’d come in waves.

He wanted her gone. She wasn't supposed to be in here. Even if she knew she wasn't, that didn't excuse anything.

Sasuke sucked in a breath, but when he lifted his gaze, it hitched almost instantaneously when he realized what he'd done.

Now he wasn't sure whether Tenten was feeling uneasy by him, or by her goldfish he'd just asphyxiated in acrylic.

Both, maybe.

Not able to find it within him to wave it off like the other things, he flinched, turning his face away from it, and hiding the shame written all over his face behind his hair.

And he never flinched, no matter how hard Sakura had tried to make him feel anything softer than what he was feeling, or how much Naruto had yelled at him - simply because he didn't care. But Tenten… she’d never done anything to hurt him. She was nothing short of good, nothing short of happy, or chipper or bizarre. No matter where they were - walking down the street, sitting at the park, even in their phone calls that sometimes spanned through to the morning, she always managed to disable his anger… something that was both frustrating and alleviating at the same time.

The reason was simple. He wanted to be angry when he was angry - not light-hearted and smiling as if his problems had flown out the window and vanished, because his situation was _real_. And he hated, _hated_ it when others tried to “make him happy” again. As if he was from the start...

But the latter had the former beat by so much simply by things as trivial as when  Tenten started to laugh, and a warmth ignited inside his chest. It was hard to hold back his own smile, seeing her like this, joyous and innocent. She became the cure to all his torment, without doing any more than being there, easing the pain whenever her eyes landed on him, delivering him from everything else.

But the sharp reminder that he had hardships she didn't have, hardships that he knew would probably snap her in two had they’d been hers, always ruined those light moments.

And she'd bring the light right back.

Everything he did he felt was justified. But not this. This was far from it.

He'd done it to _her_.

Letting the words escape in what was almost just a rush of air, he whispered, “Sorry...”

Silence. He then heard Tenten shift on her other foot.

“Sasuke-”

The last deep breath of the evening coiled for a few full seconds before he finally pushed it out. “She's gone.”

Her brow furrowed. _She?_

A shuddering breath escaped her as realization hit, her arms coming down limp to her sides. The woman who had gotten into a car accident...

His mother.

Tenten peered down to fix her gaze on her floor.

She… couldn't appertain to this. She didn't have a mother or father _to._ “It's okay”, “I'm sorry” were all excuses she deep down knew would never help him. But after Spring break, and even before that in the seventh periods spent in the art room - after all of it, it stung. Tenten bit her lip. She hated to see Sasuke like this. Maybe she had no right to (as Naruto and Sakura knew him longer), but she did. Maybe she was foolish for thinking painting, and eating and talking would switch things around for him. It wouldn't make his problems go away, she knew that, but… Something inside of her hoped it would.

Only when she took a step closer to him, she heard it. The quietest of sound.  
  
A sniffle.

He was trapped, there was no way to run away from this, and putting words to his feelings wasn’t something he knew well how to do. But… He owed it to her. All of this deserved an explanation.

And everything inside of him _wanted_ to tell her.

“Itachi got sick. He lost half of his jobs.” Even it was hard to. “He can't pay for it anymore. So they're taking her off.”

That morning every food was cardboard. No amount of chewing made it possible to swallow. His mouth was drier than a sandbox in summer. Itachi had practically collapsed right at the entrance. While he'd practically begged his brother's bosses to give him off-days for his recovery, it wasn't enough for them (Itachi had already used up those days). And nothing else mattered anymore - Naruto and Sakura, the school, his suspension. All of it. Even the bunned-haired girl with the yellow dress and the quirky personality disappeared, too, from his short list of cares without a second thought. He’d gone to the art room the next day - where he'd be returning from his suspension - to go to his piece, to the life he lived when Tenten was _not_ there, and the mix of emotions he felt was… infuriating. Fear, love, joy, loss and anger, all tangled together in an excitement that seemed to inhibit his ability to function correctly. So much, that he threw it all away.

And Tenten herself had witnessed it her own painting get obliterated in the crossfire.

For that, he couldn't be any more sorry.

There was a little bit of quiet again. He could only hear the wind outside, and even that was nothing more than a steady background hum, coming through the small crack where the windows were opened to the outside. Aside from his name, Tenten hadn't said a word.

He expected her to be upset, upset that her hard work was ruined, he expected her to rush to her painting and look at the damage - see if she could fix it, or yell at him, or even leave, _anything_ that would've been reasonable.

...Had he really forgotten who she was?

Instead, his breath caught when he suddenly felt her little arms wrap around him - tentative and gentle at first, but then it’d merged into something earnest and sincere, tightening with support - in the first ever hug she had ever given him.

As small as it was, the only thing she hoped for was that it would somehow help to ease his torment, even if she knew it couldn’t.

They stood like that in silence for a little while. Only when the creeping breeze from the window from the outside blew onto Sasuke’s face did he realize his burning eyes finally gave way to the tears.

“Sorry… about this,” he muttered, eyes to the floor, when she slowly broke away, “about.. _that.”_ He motioned towards where her goldfish, black in its center and ruined, stood.

Tenten frowned a little, though the expression spoke more of concern than of any disappointment.

“Yeah, you really did a number on it.” She murmured inoffensively, walking past him and over to inspect its condition. But then she threw it a little smile, small but genuine. “But that's okay.”

“..Why?” He asked at length.

Tenten looked at him for a long moment, something changing in her eyes.  
  
Then her lips curved into a small smile, and she pushed away from her goldfish.

“Well, remember? When I told you I didn't know what else to do with it?” When he nodded, she went on. “Now I have an excuse to paint up something else.”

Sasuke averted his eyes, looking guilty again. “Right.”

Standing there, he looked like a chastised child. She would have laughed, or teased him on it if this situation was a little less serious.

Tenten backpedaled. “That's a _good_ thing, Sasuke. I feel a little better now that I don't have to look at it and get all clueless anymore.” She shrugged genially. “Sometimes that's all it takes.

“...But if you really feel bad, then let's do a collab.”

 


	6. Closure

The next few days went by grey and silent.

School went on as usual. But things were quieter, emptier - as if every student there had caught wind of what had happened to Mikoto Uchiha; even if the knowledge of Sasuke’s life was only shared between four people—not excluding Sasuke himself.

The others were Sakura, Naruto and herself.

And she didn’t know all of it, she was sure. Naruto and Sakura, she knew must’ve known a lot of things she didn’t about Sasuke… heap loads.

But that was okay.

No biggy.

It... wasn’t really her business anyway.

(She’d had to slap those words into her mind each time the thought popped in.)

Sasuke was offered a leave of absence - it was only appropriate - when at last the principal was notified. But he refused it, and Tenten felt guilty because she had a feeling she knew why he did it.

As... for her and Neji. They talked. It was on and off, sure, but they talked little by little until things began to set back in place again. Just like a puzzle; it just took a little bit of figuring out - a little rearranging, a little explaining, a little apologizing.

And then they were friends again.

Things worked out.

Even so, Tenten knew everything wasn’t quite okay yet. Not every wrinkle had gotten ironed out. With Neji maybe, _mostly_ , but with Sasuke… It took everything in her not to tell him that he could go, that he wasn’t in any way strapped down to the art room to stick by—with _her_ , considering she was the one who suggested the collaboration, which probably wasn’t the best idea, because there was a hefty chance that Sasuke might’ve felt he owed it to her when really he didn’t, and he really,  _really_ should have been spending his time at the hospital, or even at his _home_ , or resting or something else, not—

Tenten released a breath she wasn’t aware she was holding.

All the same, Sasuke struck her as the kind of person who didn’t like pity from others. That was one of the reasons why he declined his leave-of-absence, she guessed.

Still…

Her heart gave a twinge every time she looked his way out of the corner of her eye.

All this time, she had been wanting him to come out of his shell, but now?

But now.

~~~

Soon, it began sprinkling. Little droplets of water drenched his hair, skin, and clothes. The water droplets began growing larger and falling frequently. The light ‘pitter patter’ of rain turned into wet thuds as the lukewarm water raced to meet the ground.

He wished it would wash away all his problems, but for some reason, those problems weren't bothering him so much.

Not anymore.

_Acceptance_ , he guessed. The fifth stage of the grief cycle.

The rain fell softly as if it knew of the hardships both behind and ahead. But he knew he was ahead of them already. He would be.

He’d have to.

It wasn’t easy, and it felt like both a weight and a release had been given to his shoulders to be able to admit that. To be able to admit a truth when before he never would have flashlighted any of his fatigues.

There was one person he thought of on the topic of his own… _weaknesses,_ though. And he had been angry at her for making him nearly forget about his mother’s condition, for making him think there was ever a chance. Like a rubber band that always whipped back; pull too hard, and it stung like never before. That was Tenten.

It had _been_ Tenten.

But it wasn't anymore, and all that was left was a dull ache whenever, wherever she was concerned.

But there was another person that had been boiling his pot, too.

His brother.

It was up until just recently that everytime Itachi Uchiha opened his mouth, Sasuke got angrier. "You need to sit down and take a break, Itachi."

_“It's no biggie, Sasuke,”_ he would respond. “ _I can handle it. Still, I'm touched you're so worried about your bwig bwuther_.”

At first Sasuke would swallow his retorts and just move on. But that only made it worse. One day he just snapped. His older brother shriveled before him but he kept on going, stopping short of physical violence but doing far more damage with his words.

Itachi had never heard him so explosively angry, and the sound of his voice made him reflexively jerk back and in on himself, retracting the hand he had reached out to calm him.

It took him an even longer time to answer when Sasuke was finally finished, but when he did, it was heavy, his voice utterly exhausted and resigned.

“...I'm sorry, Sasuke. I didn't mea...”

But then he dropped to the floor, his next words completely slashed for a pained grunt when his knees hit the carpet.

Sasuke lost every vestige of color for several moments, and then burst into a vivid display of stuttering. "I-Itachi..." He called, dropping to his own knees beside his brother. He watched him... do nothing. He wasn't _moving._ "Itachi!"

He felt himself begin to shake, clutching involuntarily at his own shoulders. The sounds of the streets outside faded in and out of his ears- the living. Gone.

All of it.

The resolute tone in his voice did nothing to portray the tremors inside of him. On repeat, like a broken tape recorder, all he could think was, ‘please don’t.’

Forty minutes or so after he'd manage to get his unconscious brother on his futon - and thanking the stars and everything else above that Itachi would live (he'd only passed out due to a case of extreme exhaustion) - was when they received the phone call about their mother.

~~~

“So, tell me about your new friend, Sasuke. The one I hear you talking with on the phone in your room sometimes.”

Itachi was lying down on his futon, finally relieved of all his hard duties when he asked this. Sasuke was stationed by his side, idly watching the rain as it poured from the grey skies outside. It made everything inside look dark, lull. But it was a lull that he could appreciate.

After replaying his brother’s words in his head, Sasuke blushed a little, in spite of himself. He’d heard that? Well, Tenten did have the habit of getting loud sometimes.

…and he _did_ put her on speaker more often than not.

“...Her name,” he breathed out slowly, “...Is Tenten.”

"I see." Itachi, too, breathed, turning away. But this time there was definitely a teasing note in his voice when he found it and turned his head to face him again.

"...Is she cute?"

For a heartbeat, maybe two, Sasuke stared at him blankly for a moment - focused more on the light tone laced in his brother's words during such a cheerless moment - before realization hit and the blood rushed to his face before he could think to control it. "She's - I'm _not_ _‒_!"

Itachi let out a weak chuckle.

Sasuke was very aware he’d muttered something completely unintelligible, but he disregarded it in favor of looking away.

“I’m just messing with you, Sasuke.”

But when his older brother started laughing again however, he snorted - just a _little_ \- along with him, and the mood lifted.

“Okay, so, she's not your girlfriend. What is she to you, then? What does she look like, any hobbies?”

This time Sasuke smirked. “Why does it sounds like _you're_ more interested?”

Itachi didn’t miss a beat.

“Because your head is screwed on backwards - so backwards that you don't know I'm actually trying to get you slip up and reveal that you think she's-” And he fluttered his eyelashes. “- _dazzling_ , because you don't know that I know you have a crush on her.”

Sasuke’s jaw dropped.

“Close your mouth before you catch a fly, Sasuke. Then she'll never kiss you.”

_“Itachi!”_

~~~

“I think we're done for today. What about you?”

Probably not. Probably a dumb question. Tenten screwed her lip, looking over the piece for a long moment before her eyes floundered to her shoes. The canvas was nowhere near finished—there was still a good amount of white that needed filling in, and Sasuke was probably making a look that might've signified he totally didn't think they were done, and they _weren’t_ , but...

When she looked up again, Sasuke was looking back with wariness in his eyes instead. "Are you sure?" he asked.

Tenten took a beat to note that there were a lot of things she wasn't sure of recently. But this?

“Surer than I'll ever be,” she responded with an apologetic grin, overlooking how his question _‒_ sounding more for her sake that his, than _theirs_ _‒_ bothered her. Her chair scraped as she stood up. “Anyway, my tush’s hurting from sitting down for so long, and yours has to be aching a little, too, right? Don’t answer that-” she added when Sasuke opened his mouth to speak— _to protest_ , if she knew him.

And a big ‘if’, at that…

She wasn’t sure if she ever really knew him at all now, not as much as she thought, was so _sure_ she did. She thought she had him though, easing him out bit-by-by from behind those thick, sky scraping walls he'd built for himself, and turning dull, unmoving expressions into grudging half-smirks and the expressive roll of his eyes. She went to sleep happy at night when she thought about it - and the escapade had her especially giddy. But now she felt like Sasuke was reverting back in on himself, returning to the quiet, walled-up boy she’d first met in this very room.

She didn’t want to tack him down to this place, certainly not to herself. So they would pack their things today, leave, and… and maybe… she didn’t know.

But she wasn’t going to tell him that.

Tenten pinged out of her thoughts just in time to see Sasuke looking back at her with an odd expression. His hands were on his lap now, strangely stiff, and his paint brushes and acrylics were placed neatly in his board’s holding rack. When he said nothing, she lifted an eyebrow.

The seven words come out slow, a tad irritated, leading her to believe he'd asked the question before during her time spacing out.

“Do you want to meet my brother?”

The question pinned her still.

Sasuke didn’t allow the uncomfortable silence to seep through. “You don't have to—”

“—No!”

Onyx eyes blinked up at her.

“I-” Tenten began, failing to find the right words to say. Then she gathered herself, mentally bonking herself over the head for the outburst. _Nice going._ “No—I mean, I do. Want to.”

Sasuke only eyed her for a moment before giving a silent nod.

“If you're sure.”

~~~

Sasuke’s brother was sitting on the couch, cup of noodles in hand, T.V remote close by when the knob swiveled; he was just in the middle of slurping a forkful down when Sasuke unlocked the front door.

...Of course he had no other reaction than to pause and eye them like he had been caught in some terrible, obscene act.

Like in a comedy movie.

The silence stretched on.

Itachi finally slurped those noodles down and Tenten's hand flew up to her mouth because biting her lip and pinching her arm at the same time just wasn’t working much for a laugh stifler.

(He looked so much like Sasuke.)

“Ah, I apologize. Let me just-” he cut himself off as he shuffled, with painfully obvious difficulty, to his feet. Before he could though—

“Oh - no, you don't have to!” Tenten quickly supplied, voice bordering on shrieky. “You're fine just where you are. It's no problem!”

He shot her an amused look. “Appreciated. But I have to look somewhat presentable in the presence of a guest.”

“Itachi…” Sasuke warned. The look on his face was nowhere near as cordial as the one on hers.

Then again, this was _Sasuke_ they were talking about.

“Alright, alright,” Itachi relented, holding his hands up in surrender. “I'll just sit up.”

Sasuke finally moved forward, setting his keys on the kitchen counter before walking to where his brother was currently sitting up on the couch. Tenten followed a little awkwardly behind - ginger about the whole visit, the whole her, you know, _being there._ Sasuke’s place looked to be bigger than hers, not by too much albeit, but it was a noticeable difference. It was well-organized, and Tenten blushed upon realizing that his place was definitely not messy like hers was. How many times had Sasuke been in her wreck of a living room?

He’d probably judged her for it.

_Good grief, Tenten._ Strike one.

Scratch that, _strike two_ just for sucking so bad.

Itachi’s amused voice broke her out of her mental beatdown.

“You know, stretching one's legs is good for the sickly.”

“And I'm sure you've done a lot of that while I was out.” Sasuke shot back with an unimpressed look. He turned to her. “You can sit down. Anywhere, I guess…” he added a little lamely. Tenten gave him a grateful nod, and then he left to put on tea for the three of them.

Itachi turned to her as she took a seat across from him. “As you can tell, Sasuke’s mean to me.”

“I can hear you.”

Itachi leaned in closer, voice lowering to a whisper. “As you can tell, Sasuke’s mean to me.”

Tenten laughed at that, prompting Sasuke to look over at them with an wholly unimpressed look—and then Itachi leaned back again. A few seconds ticked by and Sasuke returned with three cups. He placed them all down before at last taking a seat next to her.

“So… this is your girl friend, Sasuke.” Itachi began innocently, nodding to Tenten with a smile. “Sasuke’s talked a lot about you, you know.”

Tenten lifted her face back to Sasuke’s, furrowing her brows.

Sasuke averted his eyes from hers, not answering.

His brother and his out of place jokes… he wouldn’t mind finding a puddle right now to jump into.

Tenten took far too long to respond - seemingly too floored for words - and briefly the thought of her being at all once uncomfortable and nervous flicked to his mind.

That is, until she blinked.

“So, you already told him about us?” She asked, just as innocently.

In a flash, his eyes were back on her. “What?”

“The down low, is it?” Itachi chuckled, piling on.

Sasuke's eyes widened, his mouth falling open. It took a moment of trying and failing to get words out for him to regain his composure. With a vain attempt to banish the flush from his cheeks, he stubbornly met his brother’s amused gaze. “It’s _not…_ like that. Like _any_ of that.”

Tenten shook her head, laughing. “I’m just teasing you.” Feeling his glare now turned on her, she turned to Itachi, stifling a giggle. “I promise. I'm only kidding. I’m sorry.”

“Ah, it’s still a shame. The way you two talk over the phone, anyone would’ve assumed-”

“Moving on.” Sasuke cut in, glare never leaving his brother.

Itachi laughed.

~~~

His mother breathed.

It was like a weight being lifted off his shoulders, and Sasuke felt himself start to shake from the lack of having to carry it. He would forever deny it, and _curse_ anyone who saw, but tears filled his eyes, his hand coming up to clutch at his shirt. He swallowed, looking up to meet the doctor's eyes with renewed determination.

“Thank you.” Was all he said before he walked away and made for home.

On the way, he'd pulled out his cellphone to text Tenten the news - it would be easier that way, more convenient, a little insensitive, sure, but convenient all the same - but before he knew it, his feet had let him straight to her apartment instead. And then the words were pouring from his lips before he could think to control them.

Did he even knock? Or maybe Tenten peeped through the peephole at just the right time…

When did he even walk up the stairs?

Before he could even blink, however, the bunned girl was throwing her arms around him in a hug. Sasuke, who went stiff with shock, gradually relaxed and he was soon returning her embrace, gingerly wrapping his arms around her as he held her close.

“ _Sasuke,_ ” She breathed out. “That’s _so_ good!”

“...Yeah,” He agreed, looking away as they unpeeled their arms from each other. He paused, taking a moment to quench the color from his cheeks. “You... can come see her at the hospital if you want.”

For a beat Tenten’s eyes widened, and then she was stepping back, suddenly ginger. Sasuke immediately regretted suggesting it. Maybe he'd been too forward. “...Could I?” The bunned girl finally asked, biting her lip. She didn't know… she’d probably feel out of place. Probably stand awkwardly off at the side while she watched everything unfold.

It was what happened back at his apartment.

At first, at least.

Still.

“Yeah,” he answered her. Then something shifted in his expression. “You don't have to. She isn't awake yet and I'm not too sure on the hospital's policies, so...” He paused, shrugged. “She's not like Itachi.”

It was at this that Tenten smiled broadly. He guessed it didn't take much for her to become a ray of sunshine again. “I think _you_ were the only one who was all hot and bothered by that.”

His response was dry. “And you weren't.”

“I like pulling your leg, too!” She teasingly chirped, beaming up at him. “Maybe he and I can team up one day, and—”

“No.”

“Talk about rude? You can't just interrupt m—”

“No.”

It was only a few paces away, Tenten yelling from behind, shooting back into her room for something quick to throw on, that Sasuke realized he was smiling. A real one.

A genuine one.

~~~

“You never really speak your mind, do you? I mean-” she backpedaled when she looked up and saw that he was giving her a look. “-I'm not saying that you _have_ to. Just that all you ever do is grunt, nod, make pouty faces… that kind of thing.”

“I talk.”

“You do?”

He glared at her, but it melted a little when she burst into a goofy grin. Sasuke shook his head and looked pointedly away. “If I really told you what was on my mind, you would-”

“So it's something edgelord-ish. Right?”

He shot her a look.

So Tenten laughed at him. She closed her locker and let herself fall against it, swinging her backpack back and forth by the handle. “I’m talking about something happy. Or decent—whatever. Something like...” she scrunched her brow in thought. Then after a beat, she looked up again. The cheeky grin she was shooting at him made his frown deepen. “What do you think when you think about _me?_ ”

Not really what he expected. But then, he didn’t really know what to expect. Tenten was full of surprises.

(At least _that_ fact wasn’t a real surprise.)

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow.

“I won't get mad?” Tenten tried, putting on a look of innocence for only a moment before it morphed into something a little slicker. “But I also won't get off your back about it, so.”

“For one, you're bothersome.”

“That's a good start.”

“You're good at what you do, I guess.”

“ _Aww_ _—_ ”

“You're also annoying and your hair reminds me of golf balls.”

“...Okay, _gee,_ that was a little mean.”

Sasuke shrugged. “You said you wanted me to speak my mind.”

She pulled a face, trying her best, he guessed, to look sour about his dry, honest response. Then she laughed aloud, and the sound of it settled warmly in his ears, releasing tension in muscles he hadn’t been aware he had.

“Alright, tough guy,  _fine_.” She moved her hands behind her back, clasping them together. “I'll relent for now. I need time to bandage up my feelings before I go poking at the Sasu-cactus— Sascactus? Which one sounds better? Anyway, I'll need time before I go poking at you again.”

“Righ-"

“TENTEN!”

As one they looked up, and Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched as the familiar, circle-eyed, freaky-haired junior came shooting down the hallway towards them at glass shattering speed. He could practically see the sparks shooting off his shoes. Windmilling to a stop in front of her, Tenten instantly leaning back to avoid collision.

Sasuke dully noted Keith, Leaf— _whatever_ his name was—wasn't wearing that hideous green suit today.

That was a surprise.

“Good grief, Lee!” Tenten shrieked. “Would you slow down? The principal's going to give you hell if you leave more skid marks on the floor _again.”_

The speedster didn't bother to check to see if he did.

“Ah! I'll apologize if I did! But it is the end of the school day and Neji promised takoyaki, so I had to find you right away!” And then he slouched, an arm across his stomach as he scratched at his temple, suddenly sheepish. “And… er, I haven't eaten anything all day…”

Tenten crossed her arms. “You dingdong… just because we're going out to eat later doesn't mean you’re not allowed to eat _at least_ something small beforehand.”

“I know…”

“I can tell,” She huffed, exasperated with her friend's crack-ups. But then she shook her head, gave a fond smile as she pivoted her foot to turn. “Sasuke, you— _er_ …wait…”

He could hear the rest of her words. _Want to come with?_

“I'd rather not have to deal with Hyuga.” He answered anyway, knowing they were on the same page.

“Right,” Tenten giggled. Then she exhaled again and raised a hand to say goodbye to him, “I'll see you tomorrow?”

Sasuke nodded instead of returning the gesture. “I'll see you then.”

“Farewell, Sasuke Uchiha!”

Lee was already turning to Tenten before Sasuke had a chance to nod, again, at him in response.

Not that it really mattered.

“Tenten! There's no time to lose!”

“Hold your horses, Le—”

Sasuke blinked and the two juniors were already halfway down the hallway.

There were definitely skid marks.

_Tch._

All the same, he wasn't sour about her untimely departure—the look on her face as Lee practically hauled her down the hallway helped with that—but it wasn't like she didn't forewarn him that she'd be busy with her two friends this afternoon. He continued forward, mind flocking to something else not quite _not_ Tenten.

The collaboration.

After the day he'd taken her to see Itachi, they hadn't gone back to the art room to finish it.

But he did.

He wouldn't have been able to do it if everything's pigment didn't seep back into his life with the revelation that his mother was going to live; susans, with the dew of early morning on it's petals. The vivid blue of the sea, as he saw it a mile or two away from the hills; the puffy clouds in a June afternoon sky; the strong greens and blues and yellows and purples of colored prints and children's picture books.

It was because of this that painting came easy.

It was because of so much more, too.

Right in midst of those black-eyed susans he had drawn her. Obnoxiously huge smile, the beads of tears from laughing too long and too hard and too _much_ in the corner of her eyes, and all.

His lip quirked, thinking about what Tenten’s reaction would be when she walked in and saw what he'd done. Likely something just as obnoxious.

...Or whirl around, find him in the hallway, or in class, or _anywhere_ , hands on her knees as she blew out, rather loudly, “You finished it without me?!”

She talked his ear off, but he didn’t stop her chatter even once. _It's enough_ , he’d decide, as he’d listened to her go on and on.  _This is it._

Maybe they could've had more, maybe less, but he wouldn’t settle for anything but that - for her voice and her eyes and her laughter. With every waking moment, she lived and breathed a faith that at first, he could only ever hope to replicate. But he could do it now, replicate it.

It hit him, randomly, out of nowhere, that Itachi might've been right about that one thing...

The familiar heads of blonde and pink that just walked around the corner didn't let him think too far into it however. It wouldn't be the truth if he wasn't grateful for that.

They were a good distraction.

“ _Oi_ , there you are, Sasuke! And don't think you can just sneak off again!” Naruto declared, before he thrust an arm out to point at him. “I'll hold you down so you won't!”

“Why are you _yelling,_ idiot? He's standing right there!”

“OW!”

Sasuke watched them carefully for a moment. Then he scoffed, shoving his hands into his pockets. Either way, there was no use fighting these two.

So he walked on, Sakura still barking and bickering at Naruto and Naruto still whining and complaining about the bump he'd freshly received in the middle of his head. It,  _thankfully_ , didn't last long however, the latter sophomore throwing his arms behind his head as he fell into step, Sakura mimicking the action on Sasuke’s other side, fingers clasped around her book bag straps instead.

It was funny (not really, but worthy of noting) how they all had their own little group of friends—it was Sakura, Naruto and himself; Tenten, Hyuga and Lee. That one smart student who usually hung around Choji and that very loud blonde girl. And he didn't really care for Glasses, but he thought he saw him, Kiba and Naruto’s not-so-secret admirer eating at the same table.

Naruto and Sakura weren't his best friends for nothing and they did a pretty good job of distracting him. But still, there wasn’t only them left. Tenten—who brought him out of his shell, who pushed him back into life despite his constant protests, who made his dark life colorful and he’ll never stop being grateful for it—was there, and he knew that as long as she would be, he would be able to stand back up.

Always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Seven months isn't _that_ long, is it?
> 
> But no, really, I apologize for taking sooo heckin' long to finish writing this final chapter - well, in truth I had a good portion of it already written out a long time ago; just didn't finish it. The biggest problem among all the others was that I lost all inspiration, zeal, motivation - what have you - to continue to write for this pairing, and so, this story. Just one day, _poof_. Gone. It still hasn't returned, but even without it I had to force myself to write this chapter because I can't stand unfinished projects. Just doesn't sit well with me! Maybe it didn't turn out the way I wanted, and I probably won't go back to reread it out of sheer embarrassment, but I'll give myself a lame pat on the back just for finishing it. Woo hoo, NettleL, _way to go._
> 
> Haha! Anywho, I'm not sure how long it will take before I dish out another Sasuten story- but I'm not without ideas! Next time I'll actually write out an outline, because _phew,_ this was rough! But I want to give a HUGE thank you to @gschmitt for being such a **colossal** motivator for me! Words cannot express! You are a true guiding light~  <3
> 
> Thanks for ready, everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, new 'fic!
> 
> The next chapter might take a longer while to get up - owing to my lack of a proper/finished outline.  
> Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, though.


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